The Blood of Olympus
by Hydroflare
Summary: "Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, To storm or fire the world shall fall. An oath to keep with a final breath, And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." The Seven have gathered. Death has been freed. The Doors of Death have been closed. And now, the Seven must work to defeat Gaea... once and for all.
1. I

**I**

**Percy**

Percy stood at the helm of the _Argo II_. Besides him, no one else was on the deck. Everyone was worn out after the Necromanteion-or in Percy and Annabeth's case, Tartarus. They were all crashed on their bunks.

He'd had vivid nightmares about that place only a few minutes ago. They'd seemed so real. He'd come up for a bit of fresh air.

He took a deep breath. Didn't smell like the sea, but it was good enough. Another person stepped out from the hold.

Annabeth was coming up the stairs, and Percy ran to meet her. Truth be told, there wasn't really much need for any sort of guard nowadays. Since the Doors had been freed, they'd experienced quite a shortage of monsters attacking the ship. Usually by now, Leo would have been forcing Percy to sweep Harpies or Stymphalian Birds off the deck, but not a single monster was in sight-unless eagles counted as monsters. Percy never really could tell if the eagles were real eagles, or if they were monsters in disguise. But after going through Tartarus, he was willing to let the question drop.

"Hey." Annabeth said. She hugged him tight, and looked out over the slowly reddening horizon. "Couldn't sleep?"

The _Argo II_ had been driving itself the entire way. Percy assumed that Festus was leading the ship, but he didn't understand Morse code.

"Yeah. Nightmares." Percy replied. "You, too?"

"Yep. We went through Tartarus. Obviously we're going to get nightmares every so then. Look at what it did to Nico."

The sky was illuminated in a golden light. Annabeth sighed. "Finally, after so long in hell, I get to see the sun rise."

Percy didn't object. It was possibly more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen (Except for Annabeth). He was relieved. They'd spent eighteen days in Tartarus, drinking fire to keep alive, killing an army of dark monsters, befriending a titan and a giant, and eating Drakon sandwiches. In retrospect, defeating a whole army of monsters seemed about as hard as spreading peanut butter over bread.

"I wonder when the others are going to come up." Annabeth said. "I'll head back down."

She left, and Percy found that he'd been given a chance to think.

First of all, no monsters since Tartarus. Strange. Second, no Gaea faces since Tartarus. Even weirder. And lastly, no screaming satyrs. Coach Hedge was on the way to Camp Half-Blood. The silence unnerved him a little-he had gotten used to Coach Hedge yelling war calls and singing poorly adapted theme song parodies (they usually had to do with breaking things or killing monsters) before he even woke up.

That was before Tartarus, but still…

The other started to come up onto the deck, still yawning from the day before. Leo was first, and he immediately took control over the helm, allowing Festus some rest. He was followed by Jason, who was being dragged up by Piper, still in his pajamas. Annabeth followed closely behind, and Frank and Hazel took up the rear.

Percy couldn't believe how much Frank had grown since he'd gone into Tartarus. He looked more muscular, and his clothes had grown a little small for him. When they got to the nearest city, Percy was taking Frank shopping.

"So," Leo said, in between bites of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Do we head straight to the giants, or do we rest first? I mean, I know we've had a hard time recently, with the House of Hades, but we need to know where to go." A note of longing crept into his voice.

There it was again. Leo's longing voice. He'd apparently had it ever since Khione had blown him off the ship, and Percy knew that voice. He always slipped into it whenever he thought of Calypso.

A thought came into his head. _I'll ask him later,_ he thought. _No way did that happen to him._

But the story Leo had told the crew (retold by Hazel) was suspiciously close to the one he'd told Camp right when he'd gotten off the raft at Camp Half-Blood and seen the campers burn his shroud.

_Shut up,_ he told his mind.

_I like thinking!_ It yelled back.

Ever since Percy and Annabeth had come up from Tartarus, Percy's mind had been constantly thinking, analyzing. He was afraid that he was becoming more like Annabeth. Now _that _was a scary thought. Annabeth was amazing, but he couldn't think with all those buzzing noises in there.

Frank replied, "Well, I think we should rest a little. But then again, the giants are tearing down Mount Olympus. We can't just leave it like that. I think we need to rest, but leave _soon._ That way, we can get rest and we won't be that far behind schedule."

"I think we should jump right into it." Annabeth put in. "I have a feeling that if the giants have just come back, our best shot is to get them as quickly as possible. We've had a good night's rest; that should do. Besides," she added, "I'm not sleepy, and Percy and I have been through Tartarus."

Nobody objected. They'd all slept like they were blocks of wood the night before, and they were now fresh and rested. "You know what?" Frank said. "We _should_ get going."

But Leo wasn't listening. "I've gotten a sample-" he stopped. "Fine." He sighed. "But I doubt we'll win. There isn't a god that's willing to help us, and we're just supposed to march into there and declare war?"

"Look." Annabeth said. "I'm kind of curious to see how the giants are trying to pull down Mount Olympus. Maybe we can't kill the giants, but maybe we can stop them from pulling the original Mount Olympus down."

"Yeah." Leo said. "Maybe. A whole lot of maybe."

Festus suddenly whipped up a bunch of clicks and creaks. Suddenly Leo's face turned serious. "Festus?"

More clicks and creaks.

"You won't like to hear this. As strange as it seems, Festus says we're off course."

"I don't think that's possible." Annabeth frowned. She looked forward. "Isn't that Mount Olympus?" She pointed to a really tall mountain in front of them.

More clicks and creaks.

"Festus says yes, that is Mount Olympus, but no, it isn't. He says we're halfway back to Rome."

"WHAT?" Hazel yelled. She immediately put her hand up in the air, as if sensing for something.

She cursed. "Festus is right. We're travelling the wrong way round."

"Isn't Mount Olympus right in front of us?" Annabeth asked, looking at the huge mountain.

In reply, Hazel concentrated, and a huge fog screen blew away from the _Argo II_. The ship had sailed for so long they couldn't even see the coastline.

"It's the Mist." Hazel said. "Pasiphaë… I didn't take care of her!" She broke down into tears.

"How right you are, daughter of Pluto." A voice sounded behind Percy. "I am alive and kicking. Your little trick with the Mist didn't work, unfortunately."

"How did you survive?" Hazel said. She stood back up, wiping the tears from her eyes. Percy understood why Hazel had broken down-they had wasted valuable time getting here, and now they had to go back again.

"Oh, it wasn't hard." Pasiphaë said smugly. "You wanted to believe I'd gone down that hole." She snickered. "I made you think that. All this time, I've been warping your minds. In fact, here's where Nico is right now. Unfortunately, he's in a bit of a pickle."

She raised her hand and a ball of fire roared to life. She blew on it, and it transformed into a giant screen.

In the image, Nico was lying on the ground, panting; Reyna was fending off what looked like a giant swarm of hellhounds.

"You fools." Pasiphaë's eyes glowed red. She raised her hand. "And now, you die."

Immediately, Percy Jackson's head roared. His brain filled up with incredible pain, and he fell to the deck.


	2. II

**II**

**Hazel**

Hazel watched as her friends all collapsed on the deck, their heads hitting the wood floor with a hollow _thump_.

She was going to have to fight this battle alone.

The ship stopped, the oars stopped moving, and Festus' bright red eyes went dull. With a giant splash, the ship fell into the water.

"I've made everything fall asleep." Pasiphaë said. "Ah. You wonder what happened to Festus. Well, even automatons have some level of consciousness, magically speaking. I simply caused some strain on them. They'll all wake up in an hour or two."

Pasiphaë walked up to her. "You can't fall asleep, of course; you've got magic in your blood." She walked over to Frank. "Centurions." She spat. She raised her wand, preparing to strike Frank.

Hazel wasn't close enough to tackle Pasiphaë, nor did she have the strength to push the entire crew out of harm's way. She was going to have to resort to trickery.

_The mist._

Hazel concentrated hard, thinking of the entire crew behind her. But as Pasiphaë raised her wand, they entire grew… glitched, as a more modern person might say. For a moment, they were behind her back. But as soon as they got there, they were transported back to where they were before.

_NO!_

Pasiphaë laughed. "You honestly though your little trick with the mist would work? I am the master of magic! You think your puny Mist can defeat my powers?" she shot a beam of green light straight at Frank.

Time slowed down. Hazel could feel her heart pumping. She forced herself to concentrate. She forced the Mist to listen to her, and with all the power she could muster, she bent it. Maybe it was skill, maybe dumb luck, but just as the beam was about to hit Frank, she managed to temporarily engage the Mist, and she thought of the entire group behind her. They disappeared and reappeared right next to the mast-like she'd envisioned- and the beam fired through the deck, straight into a room. Hazel hoped Percy wouldn't mind having a hole in his bed.

But before the smoke had dissipated, the group warped back to where they had been before. Frank fell through the floor, but as soon as he did, he got warped back to his original place-and fell down again. Pasiphaë had such a powerful control on the Mist that she could keep someone in the air forever. And she didn't even seem to be fazed by the effort. Hazel would probably have fainted if she had done that for about 5 seconds.

Pasiphaë was too powerful. Hazel attempted to make a mad dash for the stairs, but Pasiphaë shifted the stairs behind her. Hazel crashed into a brick wall.

"I only had enough time to make it brick. Count yourself lucky that you didn't crash into a wall of lava. Time to finish this." Pasiphaë cackled.

She put a foot on Leo's head. "He dies first."

Suddenly had an idea-crazy by a long shot, but she had no choice. She could spend the next hour or so constantly warping the others to and fro, or she could finish it now. She focused.

Time once again moved in slow motion. Pasiphaë raised her wand, preparing to strike. Hazel forced the Mist to her will, but it wouldn't budge. It was as if the Mist was saying: _You suck! We will become independent!_

Hazel was the ruler, and for her friends, she had to resort to tyranny. She concentrated, practically yelling in her mind, _If you don't co-operate, I will kill you!_ Images of all her friends flashed across her mind, giving her more strength. With her home stretch coming up, she threw up all her power, and just before the green beam hit Leo, Pasiphaë warped through the hole, and it closed, covering her.

Surely enough, Pasiphaë didn't control the Mist. Kind of hard to do when you're drowning. Hazel rushed downstairs as fast as her legs would take her, and grabbed Percy's pen. Riptide, as he had called it, had more versatility. She had to admit, Greeks were smarter than Romans. She could slice and stab at the same time. She ran into Percy's cabin, and she heard the creak of the floorboards as Pasiphaë tried to escape her "prison". Technically, all she needed to do was swim out to the side. Hazel concentrated. In her mind, she saw Pasiphaë struggling under the ship. She didn't want to do this, but Pasiphaë was too hard to beat. She had to kill her. She envisioned stone walls around her, and they were created.

Killing a god by drowning was something Hazel had never thought of. She knew that gods were unkillable by swords, but god lungs couldn't possibly breathe water, could they?

After what seemed like ages of struggling, Hazel couldn't stand it. She just didn't have that much of a heart. She looked at the clock. It had been almost an hour.

She ran abovedecks. Percy was still knocked out. The entire crew, in fact, was knocked out.

Hazel just couldn't stand watching Pasiphaë slowly drown to her death. She knew that she would regret it, and concentrated. The Mist created a hole right in the middle of the room, and when Hazel looked into the water, the expected to see a floating woman, perhaps coughing up blood. But when she peered in, a cackle came from behind her, and Pasiphaë stood at the doorway, blocking off her escape. She was soaking wet, but she grinned cruelly nonetheless as she pushed Hazel into the water. The hole closed up, and Hazel was left in the water, holding her breath.

Hazel swam for the sides, her mind starting to fog up. She banged her head on the stone, and realized that she was trapped inside her own trap. Pasiphaë's voice resonated in her head, causing some massive headaches.

_You were fooled-once again._

_Your instincts got the better of you._

_You can die a slow and painful death!_

Hazel tried to get the walls to disappear, but her mind was so foggy she couldn't concentrate. Pasiphaë was getting the upper hand. She cursed. Why had she opened up that floor? Pasiphaë had used her caring instincts against her-and look where she was now. Stuck in a giant stone cage, with no escape, fading consciousness, and now, potential drowning.

Just that little bit of brain activity pushed her over the edge. She couldn't hold her breath any longer, and she stopped thrashing about, sinking to the bottom of the trap. Through her blurry eyesight, she saw black.

Then, she fainted. Her last thought was, _Well, this is ironic. Fainted saving a couple of fainted people._

She could still hear Pasiphaë's cruel laughter in her ears.


	3. III

**III**

**Percy**

Percy woke up with a start, his head ringing. He'd barely seen Pasiphaë when Hazel had fought her at the House of Hades, and he'd fainted in the first two seconds.

Yeah. Great. With his luck, the fight was already over and the crew would be telling him how amazingly Hazel had saved all their lives.

Percy realized he was lying down. He sat up, and realized that all of his friends were sleeping next to him. Something told him that it was the same day, and something told him that it was noon. Perhaps the shadows, or was it the fact that he was covered with sweat.

Then he realized Hazel wasn't in the pile. Something wasn't right.

"Wake up!" he yelled. Unfortunately for him, no one woke up. Great. He was going to have to solo this. He ran to the side of the ship, jumping into the water. He could see perfectly clearly, but the water did not like him.

He swam towards a giant cube of rock. Inside, he saw an unmoving figure.

Yeah. Underwater heat-vision rocks. His vision wasn't really heat vision, since he could make out colors, but in a way, it was, since he could make up Hazel. Maybe he was developing more skillz. Whatever.

Hazel was most certainly the unmoving figure. He swam directly towards it, and he realized that the cube was filled with water. He immediately made all the water inside the cube-tons and tons of H2O-seep into the rock. The rock became gravel, and all of it sank to the bottom. Percy realized that Hazel only had had a moment's worth of air. She immediately started to choke. He summoned a huge bubble and enveloped her in air. Luckily, she didn't pop the bubble or anything. Percy realized that his sword was at the bottom of the sea. Why Hazel had taken his sword, he didn't know, but he decided to go back for it later. Besides, after a while, it would return to his pocket, in pen form.

He dispelled the water from her lungs (just what he did every day), and carried her back up to the ship.

When he got back on board, he realized that the others were _still_ fainted, and he deposited Hazel on the deck.

How had Hazel gotten into that giant stone cube?

_Pasiphaë._ She was still on the ship, somewhere.

He put his hand into his pocket. Why hadn't Riptide come back to him? Then his questions were answered when Pasiphaë came up the stairs, her dark hair a complete mess, falling all over her shoulders, creating a huge frizz-like thing that Percy knew needed some correcting.

She looked amused at Percy waking up, and from her pocket, took out a pen. She uncapped it, and out sprung Riptide.

"Well, well, well. I suppose you want your sword back?" she taunted. "Well, you're going to have to get it!" she recapped the sword, and it shrank back into a pen. She tucked it into her pocket.

Percy's head roared with anger. But he hesitated. Pasiphaë was most likely trying to trick him by giving him unnecessary anger. He noticed that Annabeth had her drakon tooth knife in her pocket (always great to have a girlfriend that prepares), and promising her in his mind that he would return it later, he took it.

But Pasiphaë wasn't going to just give him a weapon, and as he reached out to grab the knife, Pasiphaë shot a bolt of green light at him. Percy fell backwards, just barely managed to dodge the spell, and immediately stood up, ready. Losing his balance would be a bad idea here.

Pasiphaë fired another spell at him. He focused on the ocean, and all of its power, and he suddenly gained renewed strength. He jumped up-far higher that he'd ever jumped before. He could have easily hit 10 feet on it. But as soon as he launched himself into the air, Pasiphaë fired another bolt at him. He managed to use a bit of water to swipe it away. He landed, and realized another spell was coming straight into his face. He cursed, and threw the dagger.

Percy was prepared to duck, but the drakon tooth absorbed the spell, and flew straight into her kneecap.

"OW!" Pasiphaë said. Being a god didn't give you immunity to pain. Percy immediately took the chance, and rushed up to her and grabbed the pen from her pocket. He kicked her right in the back, and she fell onto the floor, the knife digging into her kneecap even more.

Percy was now facing the group, and Pasiphaë was facing the stairs.

Not a moment to lose, because at that point, Hazel was starting to come to. Luckily, she had the decency to not yawn or cough, and when she sat up, Percy looked up and down, signaling that she should keep down.

Percy started to shape the clouds, forming shapes. He could only hope that Hazel got the message.

Pasiphaë was picking the drakon tooth out of her kneecap. "You cursed, wretched little-" she held it in her hand, and with superhuman speed, she threw it at Percy's face. Percy just managed to dodge it, and it hurtled straight into the wall behind him.

Pasiphaë snarled. "Die!" she yelled, Coach Hedge style, shooting a three-pointed beam of blue light at him.

Percy managed to deflect one with the sword. He turned and avoided the other one, but as he was turning he caught sight of the third beam flying straight into his face. _Any moment now… come on, Hazel!_ He thought, silently praying that Hazel got the signal.

The beam got closer. And closer. And just as it was about 5 centimeters away from Percy's face, it disappeared.

Pasiphaë stopped laughing, momentarily having a confused look on her face. She started, "What-"

Then, Percy turned just in time to see the green light magically reappear in front of Pasiphaë's face, and it hit her right on the eye.

"OW!" she yelled. She fell back down on the floor, her body trembling.

Percy eyed Pasiphaë suspiciously. He didn't know if she was acting or not, but he carefully walked up to her and looked down at her face. Her eyes were shut, and she looked like she might have been knocked out.

Just as he was about to grab her and toss her over the edge, her eyes flew open and she yelled, "JK!"

She jumped back up and fired a spell at him.

Percy muttered a few choice words of his own, and sprung back from Pasiphaë. Would this goddess ever faint, just long enough to allow him to toss her clean over the edge? Nope. It was like she was giving him an endless amount of trolls.

Pasiphaë charged- and the most stupid thing happened. She tripped over a loose floorboard and fell, face flat, onto the floor with a _Ker-bunk_.

If Percy had the chance, he would have probably yelled out, "Genius Level!", but there wasn't the option. He sneaked up to Pasiphaë, tucked her arms in, and made sure she was still out.

Sure enough, she was drooling in her sleep. Seriously, what kind of god drools in her sleep?

At the exact moment, Leo woke up. He saw the goddess at Percy's feet, and stammered, "Wha- what?", with a very surprised look on his face.

"I'll explain later." Percy said. "Could you turn the ship on turbo, please?"

Leo grinned. Going turbo was his thing. "Got it!" he ran to the helm and typed in some code to the Archimedes sphere. In about three seconds, the boat was hurtling towards the shore. Percy yelled over the wind, "Hazel! You can get up now!"

Hazel woke up, and grinned as she realized that her work had been done. She lifted up Pasiphaë, and together, they flipped her over the ship. Percy stirred up a whirlpool (in case she decided to follow them), and with a whoop, Leo steered the _Argo II_ back towards the shore.


	4. IV

**IV**

**Nico**

Nico felt pretty helpless. He was still panting, tired from the shadow-travel just a moment ago. His vision was slightly blurry. Transporting the Athena Parthenos was harder than he'd thought.

"Hiyah!" Coach Hedge yelled. "Take that!"

Shortly after, Nico heard the sound of a baseball bat cracking.

"Hey!" Hedge yelled. "That was my only weapon! DIE!" Nico heard the sound of sand scattering on the ground.

"Nice one, Reyna!" Coach Hedge yelled. Through his blurry eyes, Nico could barely see anything. He saw a giant black bunch of things, but he couldn't get his eyes to focus. Hellhounds, perhaps? He was so tired, he didn't even care about the hellhounds.

Another spattering of monster dust. "Cool!" Coach Hedge yelled.

"Maybe you could come over here?" Reyna asked. "The Athena Parthenos-it's attracting more of them!"

"Fine." Coach Hedge was awfully subdued-he usually was screaming, "KILL!" or "DIE!" at the top of his voice. But since the Necromanteion, he'd been drifting on and off.

Nico really couldn't stand it anymore. He was too tired-he honestly didn't care whether or not he got eaten. _There. That's better._ He thought as he adjusted himself, drifting off to sleep.

When he woke up, he wasn't in the clearing, or at least he thought he'd been in a clearing. Instead, he was in a giant, moonlit cave. It was probably about as big as a shopping mall, with a giant hole at the top.

Nico had heard about prophetic dreams. Everyone had them. But what Nico was expecting (a giant of some kind and a really powerful enemy) was unfulfilled, and instead, out of the shadows and into the moonlight, came a serene woman.

She was wearing silk clothes. Her face was gentle, with a firm expression, and her arms were spread wide. Her long black hair flowed down her back. Her eyes were both angry and compassionate at the same time.

"So, Nico di Angelo. You have finally arrived." Her voice was full of support and forgiveness, but at the same time, full of anger and despise.

"Who-who are you?" Nico asked. He assumed that the woman was probably an enemy, but she didn't seem like one. He had to be sure.

"I am Aletheia, the goddess of truth." She said.

Nico felt rooted to the spot. This wasn't what he'd expected. He knew something big was going to happen to him, right then, and it would have to do with the truth.

Images of Percy Jackson went through his head. His emotions boiled wildly. He forced them to calm down.

"Nico." Aletheia comforted him. "I did not come to cause you to feel pain. I come with a warning, and the truth."

Nico was trembling. His mind refused to accept the truth. His mind was shoving away every single thought that entered it. He braced himself for the worst.

"Nico di Angelo." Aletheia continued. "You do not know yourself well enough. You have spent too long hiding from the living, not knowing what it truly means to love, care, have friends, have trust."

Nico's heart pounded even harder.

"But you do know." Aletheia said. "Everyone knows. But they let their preconceived beliefs, not truth, guide them. People think they know themselves. How wrong they are."

She fixed her eyes on him. "I said I come with a warning. You will face a great obstacle along the way back to your Camp, and only the truth will manage to clear it."

Nico's heart was pounding against his chest. He was calming down, but he was still on edge.

"You still have much to learn about your real self, Nico di Angelo." Aletheia said. "You belong more than you realize. More people care about you than you think. You have more friends than you believe."

Nico had never felt like anyone was his friend, even Jason, who he barely considered to be one. He'd revealed his secret to him, but now, he was anxious to get back to the others, just to see if Jason had told them.

Aletheia sighed. "Nico. I must leave now. I am being called. But you must remember, only the truth will be able to allow you to overcome your obstacle."

She disappeared back into the shadows.

Nico woke up to the sound of (you guessed it) Coach Hedge screaming, "WAKE UP!"

He jolted awake. Coach Hedge was yelling in his face, spewing Satyr spit, hairballs and some other pretty nasty things all over his face. "Ew!" Nico said, using his sleeves to wipe all the disgustingness off his noggin.

He looked around. "What-" around them was a giant pack of hellhounds. And by gigantic, it didn't mean just about 50 or so-there were probably thousands, and each one was twice as big as a regular hellhound.

Reyna was still fighting, but she wasn't doing very well. Once her sword sliced one in half, another one lunged at her. It was all she could do to avoid getting killed.

Nico cursed and drew his stygian iron blade. The black iron glinted in the setting sun.

Wait… Nico very clearly had shadow-traveled during noon. He'd been sleeping for over 5 hours!

_Whatever,_ he thought. He charged into battle.

Big mistake.

Nico raised his hand, but nothing happened. Shadow-traveling the Athena Parthenos had seriously sapped his strength. He was strong enough to battle, but not enough to summon any dead people.

He cursed again, and sliced a hellhound to bits. Immediately, another hellhound pounced behind him, and pinned him down.

"Sit!" Nico yelled. The hellhound ignored him.

So these hellhounds weren't like the ones he'd ridden before. Usually, he could control them (somewhat) but these were so powerful, so ancient, that not even he could control them.

Nico stabbed the hellhound in the neck. It exploded into dust.

Suddenly, he felt a tug in his feet. He looked down and saw a hellhound tugging at his feet, trying to bite them off. He tried to throw his knife, but as he was priming for it, he heard a giant spattering of dust behind him. A hellhound had pounced at his head, only to stab itself on his knife.

Nico threw the blade. It hit the other hellhound right on the eye. It exploded into dust. Luckily for him, the monsters didn't reform immediately-they'd closed the Doors already.

Nico stood back up. He looked around, trying to get a good view of the battle. To his left, Coach Hedge was busy using his hands to wreck the hellhounds. He was punching, kicking and once even wrangled a hellhound to its death. Nico didn't even wince when he saw what Hedge was doing. Being around the dead all the time really gave you a better stomach for grisly scenes.

These hellhounds were _huge_. They were basically as tall as half a tree, sometimes even taller. Luckily, they weren't interested in him, since he was a son of Hades, but they were wreaking havoc on his companions.

Suddenly, he heard a loud scream. He whipped his head around, and he saw a hellhound picking up Reyna in its jaws and swinging her around.

Adrenaline rushed through his veins. His mind went blurry. A strange feeling went through his heart. He was determined to kill all the hellhounds. He raised his hands, pretty much sapping every last drop of his energy, and he raised his arms. A giant rumble came, and suddenly, every single hellhound dropped into the canyon that Nico had just created around them. Reyna had been spit out, safely on the ground, covered with dog drool.

Coach Hedge looked at Nico, understandably shocked. Nico had just created a canyon, roughly 40 meters wide, with rushing lava at the bottom, right around them and the Athena Parthenos. He'd killed every single hellhound with one swipe of his hand.

Nico couldn't hold on to consciousness any longer. He had used up every single drop of his reserves to create that canyon. He didn't even have enough time to process what he'd just done. He just closed his eyes and blacked out.


	5. V

**V**

**Jason**

Jason felt like he was useless.

On this journey, he'd been made useless too many times. First, it was the hard hit on the head at Camp Jupiter, then the eidolons, then Khione. Now, he had been knocked out while Percy and Hazel had fought a demonic, power-hungry witch.

He felt really honored.

Jason was staring at the reddening horizon, which was growing paler behind them as the _Argo II_ sped along. He kept thinking, _Why do I never get to be the one to save the day?_

Although he knew that nobody was expecting him to save the day every day, he still felt miffed that he never really was the hero. Most of the time, someone else had done it for him. Really, the only time he'd been the hero was when he'd defeated Otis and Ephialtes with Percy. Pretty much. Getting the ship off the coast of Africa didn't really count.

The ship was skimming the waves on the Adriatic Sea. Jason was about to go to bed when he suddenly felt a chill in his bones.

Jason whipped his head around, preparing himself for the worst.

But there wasn't anything there.

A small breeze started up. Jason walked over to the stairs. Suddenly, he realized that the wind wasn't just blowing…it was spinning. His blood turned to ice.

"Leo!" he yelled, panicking. "We need to go faster!"

"What?" Leo yelled back, over the wind. "I'm already going-"

Suddenly the ship lurched to one side. Everything slammed into the guiderails, including Jason. The small breeze turned into hurricane force winds. The _Argo II_ was thrown about in the air. The waves were so high that they splashed onto the deck. Percy ran up the stairs. "What the-?" he yelled.

"I don't know!" Jason yelled back. "Could you get the water off the deck? We shouldn't have any extra weight!"

The wind howled. "What is this storm doing?!" Leo yelled. "Firstly, it wasn't on the predictions, and secondly it took about, like three seconds to whip up! Whoa!" he slid back and hit his head on the mast. Seawater was seeping in. The wind howled.

"Leo!" he yelled. The ship had tilted to one side, throwing Leo over the edge. He landed with a splash, barely audible over the waves and wind. "NO!"

Jason looked around. Percy was still getting the water off the deck, a shocked expression on his face.

"Percy! Do you have any idea on how to calm the waves?" he asked.

Percy shook his head. "I've tried already. The waves aren't responding."

Suddenly the wind howled, and Jason could swear that the wind was saying, _I AM CHAOS_.

Jason turned around to face Percy. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah." His face turned pale. "Why are we facing Chaos? I thought that it was just where everything came from!"

Jason remembered a little bit of what they'd learnt about Chaos in Camp Jupiter. "No. That wasn't all of it-he also was the god of the lower air." Jason suddenly realized. "We need to go higher!"

"What about Leo?" Percy yelled.

"If we don't go up, the entire ship is going to break!" Jason yelled back. "You can feel it, right?"

"Yeah." Percy said. "I'll go rescue him! Be back in a minute!"

He just jumped of the deck and into the sea. Jason took a moment to realize that Percy was a son of Poseidon and had all these water powers, and that it wasn't really necessary to jump in after him.

A couple of moments later, Percy came back up, with Leo slung over one shoulder, still retching from his little swim. He dropped Leo on the deck. "Jason, you know how to fly the ship?"

Jason ran to the controls, looking at them. He'd been given a crash course a little while back, by none other than Captain Valdez, and he had a rough idea. He picked up a GameCube controller, and hit the A button repeatedly. The _Argo II_ slowly rose into the air. The waves and wind battered the ship relentlessly.

Percy yelled, "We need to go faster! At this rate, the ship is going to break apart! I'm basically holding it together with the raindrops at this point!"

"I'm trying!" Jason yelled. "But I can't use the Archimedes Sphere, and this A button is the only way I know!"

"How about the instruction manual?" Percy yelled, pointing at a tiny drawer in the middle of a Wii Remote, NES and MacBook Pro.

Jason took it out, careful to shield it from the rain. He flipped to the contents-kind of hard to do while continuously pressing A.

Where was the chapter for Up/Down? _Boarding, Starting, Landing, Steering… there!_ Jason flipped to page 57, and scrolled down the page.

"To go up, press the A button on the GameCube controller continuously." Jason read.

"Maybe something else?" Percy gasped.

The wind was buffeting Jason and Percy. Leo had slid across the deck, slamming into the door to the bottom levels, tumbling down the stairs.

Jason kept going. "To make the ship ascend faster, press the 1 button on the Wii, open the application "_Argo II_" on the MacBook Pro (Select fast Ascent), and step on the accelerator."

"Why does Leo have to make things so complicated?" Percy yelled, gasping.

Jason got to work. His hand and feet flew all over the controls, and within seconds, the ship started to zoom up towards the clouds.

Annabeth suddenly stormed up the stairs, hair messy and eyes stormy. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"As a matter of fact, there is!" Jason yelled. "Get belowdecks! Ask Leo where the heating system is! It's going to get really cold!"

"On it!" Annabeth rushed downstairs.

The wind battered relentlessly against the ship. Percy concentrated. Jason called forth a giant gust of wind-risky, considering the ship was about to break apart-and it raised it up even further.

The ship was only moments from touching the clouds. It was unbearably cold. Jason had never touched clouds before. As the ship hurtled upwards, he got his first chance.

Clouds felt like a rainforest, which didn't feel nice at all. The deck suddenly turned warm, and Jason knew that the heating system was on. Didn't help with the sweat that was pouring down his back. Just a few more meters, and the _Argo II _would be safe from the battering winds. They would be able to sail on to Athens-and Mount Olympus.

But as the ship broke the clouds, Jason's-and Percy's- faces fell.

"Oh no." Percy said.


	6. VI

**VI**

**Percy**

Percy was hoping for perhaps a bit of peace and quiet when they were above the clouds.

Nope. It seemed like the fates wanted to throw every bit of irony at him. He pictured them, once again, knitting their stupid socks and laughing, _LOL, NOOB!_ Quite disorienting, considering the fates were usually silent old ladies.

The raindrops he'd been using to hold the ship up had frozen, but as soon as the ship reached the clouds, Percy realized that their troubles weren't over- not by a long shot.

Above the clouds, the clouds above the clouds-cirrus?- were spinning around. Percy realized it wasn't just the cirrus-it was the air. The winds were incredible up here-they were even stronger than the winds down in the lower air. It howled, and it felt like Percy's face was getting ripped off.

"This isn't good." Jason said. "We're going to get pulled apart!"

Percy couldn't answer. He was too busy trying to stay on deck. The wind was pulling floorboards off the deck, exposing piping. It was shattering windows, and suddenly, the mast flew off.

"Whoa!" Percy yelled, as the ten-ton stick flew off the deck. He ducked, and the base flew just inches from his head. He lost his grip, and tumbled into some railing-just as it was ripped off the side. Percy slid across the deck, and managed to grab the doorframe just in time to avoid being blown away. His heart was pounding. He could have gotten thrown off deck. He would have lived the fall, of course-but he was still scared.

Percy was freezing. He was shivering. His teeth chattered. "Why is it so windy here? I thought Chaos only controlled the lower air!"

"No. He does. It's someone else for the upper air." Jason tried to remember.

_I AM AETHER._

"Um, did you hear that?" Jason yelled.

"Who's Aether?" Percy asked.

"He's the god of the upper air!" Jason yelled back. He cursed as the sail got ripped from the ropes and were blown away by the wind.

One by one, the right oars snapped off, and were blown away. Suddenly, the _Argo II _to one side, toppling crates over the edge. Jason just managed to grab Festus before he almost got thrown over the side.

"This isn't good!" Jason yelled over the gale. "We can't go up or down! We can't sail!" From Percy's limited vision, he saw Jason wrestling with the controls (which was virtually impossible given the circumstances), but the ship seemed to be barely responding to his controls. It spun around on an axis, and with the sound of a thousand pieces of wood splintering, the oars on the left side all came off, and tumbled into the clouds.

Immediately, the ship righted itself. Jason managed to get a grip, and tried his hardest to correct the ship. But the ship didn't respond to him, and it immediately started to drop. Jason tried to control the winds, but they didn't work for him.

Percy managed to get a firm grip on the deck. He looked over the edge, the clouds coming closer and closer to the ship.

Suddenly, the sky turned black. Percy hadn't even realized that it had been daybreak when the thing with the winds had started. The entire ship was plunged into darkness.

Percy could just barely make out the clouds they were falling through. The _Argo II_ was rocking violently back and forth, and the moment they broke the clouds, they were once again pounded by the rains and wind. Percy stayed dry, but Jason was bracing himself against the wind, which wasn't supposed to be affecting him that much.

The rain pelted the deck. Jason said, "I can't-"

And the _Argo II_ hit the water. And it exploded.

Water went over the edge. It seeped onto the deck, and poured belowdecks. "Annabeth!" Percy yelled, running into the doorway. He burst into the hallway, only to see all of his friends on the floor, spluttering and spitting water out of their mouths. Hazel was covering the floor in some pretty disgusting things. Seasickness can really get to you in a storm.

"What the heck was _that?_" Annabeth asked, wringing water out of her hair.

"We've hit water." Percy said, trying to keep calm. "Jason's trying his best up there, but-"

"We've hit water." Piper said. "Like, we fell out of the sky."

"Yeah. We did." Percy said. "And in case you ask, no, I can't control the water. Wind's too strong."

"Oh, no…" Piper said. "We need to get to shore _now!"_

"Jason's trying his best." Percy said. "What's wrong?"

"We're going to-" Piper started.

Suddenly, another wave of water came down the stairs, engulfing everyone belowdecks.

"Sorry!" Jason called.

But it wasn't over yet. Over the creaking of the wood that made up the hull of the ship, Percy was positive he heard a crack.

"Guys." Percy said. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Piper asked. Even Annabeth looked confused.

Suddenly, the walls gave way. Water started to pour in, like a gushing fountain. Within seconds, the hallway started to fill up. "Get up!" Percy yelled, suddenly aware that the ship was going to sink. "Go!"

Everybody raced up the stairs. When they got on the deck, Jason wasn't even steering anymore. He just sat there. Water had washed onto the deck, leaving his pants wet.

They all sat around in a circle.

"Jason?" Piper asked.

He looked up. "It's over, isn't it?" he sighed. "We're going to drown here. Except for Percy." He looked at Percy, and Percy could almost see a bit of anger in them.

"Look, we're taking on water. Any moment now, the ship's going to get submerged. And we're too far from any shores." Jason sighed. "I never thought it would end like this. I would fly everyone safely, but Percy can't control the water right now, and I can't control the winds."

"So, you're basically saying we're screwed." Annabeth leaned in.

"Yep." Jason replied.

And the ship sank.

Water seeped onto the deck so quickly nobody had time to react. Soon, the crew was already waist deep-and it was getting higher and higher. A wave loomed over them, easily a storey high.

Boards floated off the deck. "Grab something!" Percy yelled. He grabbed a floating plank, and the wave engulfed him.

As always, the water didn't affect him that much. He remained dry, and he could breathe. But he couldn't will the currents to make him travel to other locations, and he had to swim.

Kicking strongly with his legs, he resurfaced. He looked around. Annabeth and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, no." he dived back down. Through the murky water, he could make out the forms of the other six demigods. He kicked as had as he could. He had to get to the others before they drowned!

Swimming took too long. They were roughly ten meters away from him, and he was tired out already.

But he swam to them anyways.

But when he reached them, he didn't have the strength to pull all of them up at once. He kicked with all his might, but even a son of Poseidon couldn't pull up six people at once.

His friends were close to death. Percy knew it by the fact that their lungs were partially filled with water.

_No._ He thought. _Hades, I'm not going to let you take them._

Percy kicked upwards with all his might, but the others were just too heavy combined. He just couldn't get them to the surface.

After another fifteen seconds, Percy knew that the others were practically dead. They'd been underwater for too long.

Percy was about to give up hope. Then he saw the shadowy figure gliding towards him.


	7. VII

**VII**

**Jason**

Jason woke up, coughing up water. He looked around. "What…" His mouth dropped opened in shock. He was in a giant underwater dome. It was literally a dome of air, with the water suspended in the air, almost as if there was a piece of glass between the water and drowning. But it was definitely magic, because there were little water droplets dripping onto him.

He walked over to his left, where the others were. Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Leo, Hazel and Frank were having a barbecue around a giant, fiery pit. Smoke drifted up towards the water, then dissolved.

He walked over to them.

"Hey, Jason!" Percy yelled over to him. "Care for a s'more?" Jason sat down, and pretty soon they were all roasting marshmallows over the campfire.

"Whoa!" Leo yelled. Suddenly, his marshmallow caught on fire. He patted it out. Jason was whisked back to a time, almost six months ago, when Leo had accidentally set his marshmallow on fire at the campfire, and it had almost burned his shirt off.

"So… why are we here?" Jason asked.

Percy shuffled in his seat made out of coral. "Well…" he started.

"Me." A deep voice sounded behind Jason. Jason whipped his head around, and he wasn't exactly glad about it afterwards.

The man was about forty years old, and he looked sort of like a man who'd lived his entire life in the sea. He had seaweed for hair, and his skin was wrinkly. He had a tan, and his eyes looked bored, like he was tired of saving people from potentially fatal boat accidents.

"So… you saved us?" Jason asked.

"Well, this young man, Pablo Jacobelli…"

"Percy Jackson." Percy interrupted, wincing like it was reminiscent of something.

"Yes! Pedro Janovsky." He said. "Anyways, he was trying to pull you out of the water, like, all of you. He couldn't do it, so I created a giant dome and let him sink you guys down here to heal."

"Oh." Jason said. "Um, who exactly are you?"

"I am Palaemon." He said, sounding awfully bored, like he was tired of saying it. "Savior of sailors, protector of ships, blah, blah, blah."

"Of course." Jason said. "And, um, how long has it been since I was knocked out?"

"About as long as the rest of us." Hazel replied. "We basically slept through the night. You were only behind me by about five minutes."

"Cool." Jason said. "By the way, how's the _Argo II_?"

Leo adverted his eyes. Everyone looked down.

"Oh." Jason said.

"Smashed to pieces. Fractured." Palaemon confirmed. "The hull is over there." He pointed to a gigantic, deformed piece of wood in the middle of a coral forest.

"Oh." Jason said in a very small voice.

"We won't be going anywhere for a while." Leo said. "I could fix it down here, but we don't know if the ocean is still rough, or if it's calmed down already. Besides," he added, "Palaemon isn't letting us leave. I tried asking, but he just shrugged it off."

"You would do well to pay more respect to gods, Leo Valdez." Palaemon said, eyes smoldering. "I am getting bored of doing the same thing to sailors over and over again. Trap them in a giant bubble, feed them, wipe their memories of the incident, and let them go. You won't _believe_ how many naval accidents there are- oh, sorry. _Another_ ship just crashed over the Atlantic. Excuse me."

He turned into a bunch of tiny water droplets, and floated away.

"So…" Jason turned back to the others. "How are we going to leave this place? We have thirteen days until Gaia rises. We need to MOVE!"

"Yeah… but we can't leave. The magic stops us from getting out, and even if we did get out, he would just make the seas choppier, and we would be screwed." Annabeth said.

"Why-"

"Bored, I guess. Millennia of saving sailors really can mess with your mind. It can get boring, I guess." Percy replied. "He sounds like Mr. D."

"Mr. D- Oh, Dionysus."

Jason had never met Dionysus. He'd been away at the time he was in Camp Half-Blood, on forced temporary retirement from his job, by Zeus.

"Hello." The god Palaemon was back. "And I suppose you want to leave."

"Yes!" Percy and Leo yelped at the same time.

"Well, sorry. I get bored. I think it's time to change." Palaemon said, sighing. "You can't leave here."

"What?" Percy yelled. "But we need to continue on our quest! The fate of the world rests in our hands!"

"Fine, then." Palaemon said, sighing, like he was tired of arguing with people. "Go on. But hear this. You must go to Athens if you are to defeat the giants. There, you will find a powerful weapon."

He waved his hand, and the landscape around them changed. They were suddenly sitting on a beach, the sand digging into their toes. Frank saw all the sand, yelped, and ran off the beach.

"He hates sand." Hazel said apologetically. "He says it gets into his pants, his shoes and it feels horrible."

"We'll make do." Percy said. "So, do any of you know where the hull is? I'd assume Palaemon brought it with us, but where is it?"

"Maybe that?" Leo pointed over to a big lump on the beach.

The _Argo II _was pretty intact, especially for a ship that had been to the bottom of the ocean and back. Aside from the fact that it had all its oars broken off, along with the mast and all the floorboards, it was fine. The gigantic maze of pipes, chambers and dangerous liquids that made up the engine was still intact (luckily it hadn't blown up), but the ship was going to need a lot of fixing before they would be sailing once more.

"When we set sail again, we're most definitely heading to Athens." Jason said. Everybody else nodded. The idea of a secret weapon was really tempting, especially when it could kick some "serious booty", as Leo would probably say.

"Well," Leo said. "I doubt we have enough time to walk to Athens. Fixing the ship should take about a week, and walking there would take about two."

The oars that had been blown off the ship, that mast, and pretty much everything that had broken off, was in a giant, nice, neat pile right next to the hull, with everything color coded, and sorted according to size.

"Well," Leo said. "We have a _lot_ of work to do!"


	8. VIII

**VIII**

**Nico**

Nico woke up. He was still in the clearing that he had been in before. The giant canyon he'd just created was still there. On the other side was a giant pack of giant hellhounds.

"How many hellhounds are there in this forest?!" Reyna yelled, exasperated. "

"Hello?" Nico asked.

"Oh, so _now _you wake." Reyna said icily, in a voice that made Nico want to run and hide in a desolate corner of the world. "We've had to fight off a giant flock of Stymphalian Birds a couple of times, ward off a bunch of wolves, and don't even get me started on the Gegenees."

Nico felt like his head was going to float off. "How long was I out?"

"About a day." Reyna replied, annoyed. "That statue is a giant magnet. We've had almost a thousand monsters attack. Not that I bothered to count," she said. "But it's kind of obvious when the entire forest is attracted to you."

"We need to leave _now_!" Nico said. He felt much better than he had a day ago, and there wasn't time to waste. "I'll get us another mile."

"Hold hands!" Reyna said to Coach Hedge, who was busy swatting his bat at thin air, practicing his strokes. They gathered around the upright Athena Parthenos, and held hands.

"Here goes…" Nico concentrated, a circle of darkness opened beneath them, and they dropped into it.

They landed at the bottom of a mountain. The air was slightly chilly, but Nico didn't feel anything-he'd gotten used to it. Spending about 90% of your time with the dead really got you acquainted with the coldness.

Nico looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to darken. The sun was beginning to set. Birds flew overhead. Nico was really tired. He had brought them another hundred miles or so, and boy was he tired. He hadn't anticipated being so tired at first, even when only travelling a few hundred miles. He immediately slumped down right next to a tree.

"I'll guard you." Coach Hedge seemed surprisingly unwilling. "I'll probably get in a call or…" he shut up. No more talking. He walked up the slope a little, and sat there.

Nico fell asleep.

In his dreams, he was floating above a city he didn't really know, with no knowledge of why he was there, and trying very hard not to fall. That was because he had chicken wings instead of hands and arms. Another thing, it was very high up. And very cold.

A figure floated up to him.

_Really? Again?_ Nico thought. The figure floated closer, and Nico saw it was Aletheia. And she was smiling. When gods smile, it usually doesn't mean anything good. They usually have something bad to tell you, or they're really, really grumpy most of the time.

"You are another step closer to finding your truth." Aletheia said. She was serene, with a different outfit this time. Strands of silk came off a motorcycle jacket. She looked like a Chinese woman had decided to go badass. "You have made the first step."

"What step?" Nico asked. "I didn't even…"

Images of Percy filled his mind. He shook them away. "I don't know how finding the truth would help at all. It's not like knowing your unknown secrets is even that powerful. What am I going to do, use my truth to destroy a monster or something?"

Her eyes flared. "Do not speak like that, Nico di Angelo. I am helping you overcome a challenge you will face later. Truth is not that useful to a lot of people; yes, that is true. But in _your _case, truth is the only way that you will be able to overcome it."

Nico woke up in the clearing, to the sound of Coach Hedge screaming. "DIE!" he yelled, as he sliced a dozen harpies to bits. "Scram!"

The very, very dim sky was filled with harpies. They were all, once again, going like a funnel towards the Athena Parthenos. A lot of them had grabbed on to it, trying to lift it up with their combined strength. Reyna was trying to climb up to the top of the 40-foot statue, but she wasn't having any luck. "Nico!" Reyna yelled. "They're going to lift it up! Could you shadow-travel right now?"

Nico didn't feel that much power in him at that moment, but he was strong enough. "Yes!" He yelled back. Her expression meant that she had a very good plan. He was sure of it.

"What's your plan?" he asked.

Reyna didn't even question how he knew. She just yelled back, over the screeching of the harpies, "Can you shadow-travel us underground? That way, the harpies can't get it up!"

"Yeah, but underground means Gaia!" Nico yelled, stabbing a harpy in the chest.

"Well, can you choose what to shadow-travel, like not have the harpies follow but have us get out of here?" Reyna yelled back. She slashed a harpy to dust.

"Well, sort of!" Nico yelled. "Fine! I'll take a risk! I sense a cave about a mile or so away from here! COACH HEDGE!" he yelled.

Hedge turned around, got the signal and ran back. He gripped Nico's hand.

Nico concentrated, and they went through the swirling black.

They came out in a cave filled with stalagmites and stalactites. The 40-foot tall statue had carved a hole in the ceiling, flattening the harpies that had been transported along with it. Loud calls, shrieks and the flapping of wings filled the air. Dust sprinkled from the gaps.

"Holy Hera, di Angelo!" Coach Hedge yelled, his voice echoing around the tight space. "Did you _have _to do that?"

"Yeah. Sorry!" Nico yelled back. The cave was almost completely dark. The only light was a tiny beam of light streaming from a crack in the ceiling. It reflected off Reyna's sword, just giving Nico enough light to make out their surroundings.

"Their legs seemed to be pretty firm, considering they were supposed to be getting sucked into the ground.

"Well, I need to rest." Nico said. His mouth was dry. His throat felt like it had been pierced with a knife. "I feel like I've run a marathon." He flopped down on the floor, his eyes barely managing to stay open. "I'll go to sleep. Transporting the statue twice in an hour… that really sapped my strength." He closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

He was so tired, he fell straight into slumber. The last thing he saw was the cave exploding in a giant column of fire.

He couldn't even concentrate on the flames. He just nodded off to sleep.


	9. IX

**IX**

**Frank**

Frank was dreaming.

He'd been paid visits from a shadowy figure for the past three days, telling him about things that weren't very comforting.

And he was back.

"You have arrived once again." The shadowy figure, wearing a Greek _Chiton_, knelt in front of him. He was made out of pure darkness, with what looked like ram's horns on his head. "You will need to master your skill. The skill of shape-shifting will be needed in your final battle."

"But-" Frank interrupted.

"Silence." The figure cut him off. For the last couple of visits, he'd always cut Frank off from objecting to what he said. "You and your girlfriend Hazel will have to face enemies-powerful enemies. Only when you master your skill will you be able to defeat them."

"But-"

"You know better than to argue, Frank Zhang." He told him. "You need to practice. WAKE UP!"

Frank got out of bed. It was midnight. The crew had been using a couple of trees in the forest as their makeshift beds, stringing hammocks using some rope. It wasn't the most comfortable, considering the crew had only been able to put up three, and they had been taking turns. Frank had been sleeping on the ground for the last two nights, and truth be told, he wasn't exactly happy. Every night, he'd have ants crawling into his shirt, and he was sure he'd seen a spider or two once. There was a giant rock where he put his legs, and the best they could do for a mattress was a giant sheet of all the crew's clothes stuck together.

The _Argo II_ had been banged up pretty badly during the storm. The crew had fixed most of the deck two days ago, but for the control wiring, Leo had insisted that he had to do it himself. "You'll mess most of it up." He'd said. "Trust me. I'm better off doing it on my own. If you guys messed up the soldering… well, that would suck."

Frank looked at the almost completed ship, the celestial bronze hull gleaming in the moonlight. They'd lost about five days so far, and it was now the 25th of July. Just six more days until Gaia awoke. Just six more days to rescue the world from total oblivion.

Frank knew that there was a giant problem- Mount Olympus was being pulled down, while Gaia was planning to use two of them as a sacrifice to wake her up-on the feast of Fortuna, 1st of August. Frank wasn't so sure why Leo had said it would take longer to walk than to sail, considering that he was sure it wouldn't have taken them six days to complete. They were on a tight schedule right on the get-go, so early in the quest.

One thing was definitely strange. Gaia had been surprisingly quiet for the past week. Barely any monsters had attacked. After closing the Doors of Death, Frank wasn't sure why they weren't on the Monster Radar. After all, they had basically done the equivalent of destroying the Empire State Building in the monster world.

Frank sighed. He had to focus on the trees. _Train,_ the goat-man had said.

Just as he had done every night for the past four nights, Frank transformed into a bear, and lumbered through the forest.

The leaves whipped past his face. He'd been going through the woods at night, murdering any monsters that stood in his way.

He sniffed the air, and suddenly his senses went on red-alert. About a hundred yards away, a giant pack of wolves was on the move. He sniffed harder, and immediately, a picture jumped into his head.

Lycaon. The wolf that had tried to murder Jason, Piper and Leo on their first quest.

Frank made a beeline for their camp.

"GUYS!" Frank yelled, as he transformed back, awakening everyone. "WOLVES!"

Leo sat straight up, his eyes opened wide. "Wha-" he said, and fell back onto his hammock. Unfortunately, he'd unbalanced it, and it tipped over, depositing him on the floor.

"Ow!" he yelled. He got up, brushed himself off, and looked at Frank, annoyed. "Can you just let me get some sleep?" he muttered.

"WOLVES are coming!" Frank yelled. He wasn't sure if Leo had gotten the message yet.

Right when he heard the word _wolves_, Leo snapped straight into red alert mode. "On it!" he yelled. He pulled a tiny gong out of his tool belt, and started banging it. "WAKE UP!" he yelled. Pretty soon, everyone was awake.

Suddenly, shadows crossed the clearing.

"They're here." Frank said. "I'll fight them off, bide some time. Leo, get everyone up!"

"On it!" he yelled, tossing swords and daggers into everybody's laps.

Frank morphed into a bear, and charged.

Outside, Frank saw the most ridiculously average collection of wolf monsters he had ever seen. They looked like average wolves, with the pack leader on wearing a crown. That was literally it. The first time, Lycaon had apparently been as tall as a horse, but this time he was about a fifth of that size.

_Frank Zhang, out of the way._ The wolf spoke telepathically, snarling. _We come here to collect two of you. One boy and one girl. That stupid son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena._

Percy and Annabeth, Frank thought.

He snarled in reply, raking his claws through the wolf. Unfortunately, he didn't even flinch.

_I am only hurt by silver or fire, neither of which you have in large quantities._ Lycaon made a very bad attempt to laugh. It resulted in something that sounded like a cross between a fake fart and a very high-pitched whine.

_One hope left, _he thought. They had silver weapons (basically a very small dagger), and if the others brought it out, the wolves were toast.

Only things got more complicated. Just as Leo started to exit the tiny alcove of trees, saying, "Cool. I got them all up!", a giant fist made of trees, soil and anything near it rose up out of the ground, grabbing everyone still inside.


End file.
